Posted on 07/05/2003 4:39:53 PM PDT by FairOpinion
London - The increasing use of cannabis by adolescents is threatening the mental health of a generation because of the drug's capacity to trigger psychosis, a leading psychiatrist has warned.
Robin Murray, a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, said growing evidence linking cannabis with mental disorder had failed to curb use of the drug. One study suggested cannabis users were at seven times higher risk of developing mental problems.
"In the past 18 months, a number of studies have confirmed that cannabis consumption increases later risk of schizophrenia," he told the Royal College of Psychiatrists annual conference in Edinburgh. "This research must not be ignored."
As Murray delivered his warning, doctors at the British Medical Association's annual conference rejected by a large majority calls for cannabis and other recreational drugs to be legalised.
'Prohibition does not work' Connie Fozzard, a retired surgeon, told the conference legalisation would help to cut crime.
"Prohibition does not work," she said. "Just look at the experience of the United States when it tried to ban alcohol. What arose out of that was Al Capone and armed gangs - and that is what happening now in this country."
Speaking at the psychiatrists' conference in Edinburgh, Murray said research suggested cannabis might interact with a genetic vulnerability in some people, sufficient to push them over the edge.
His review of research in Sweden, Holland and New Zealand found that cannabis use was higher among psychotic patients than the broader population. It had been thought that patients took the drug to counter the negative symptoms of the illness, but Murray said this had been ruled out by more recent research.
A Dutch study of 4 000 people found that those taking large amounts of cannabis were almost seven times more likely to have psychotic symptoms three years later.
'Just look at the experience of the United States when it tried to ban alcohol' A study in 1987 of 50 000 Swedish conscripts found that those who admitted at age 18 to having used cannabis on more than 50 occasions were six times more likely to develop schizophrenia in the following 15 years.
Research in New Zealand found that those who used cannabis at age 15 were four-and-a-half times at higher risk of developing psychosis by the age of 26.
Murray said the results held even when initial personality was taken into account. He concluded that the impact of cannabis on the mental health of young people "may not be negligible" and that reducing use among the young "may help to avoid some cases of psychosis".
The findings come as the British government prepares to downgrade cannabis from a Class B to a Class C drug next year so there will be a lesser penalty for possession. Most people caught in possession of a small amount will have it confiscated and receive a reprimand or warning.
A Home Office spokesperson said the intention was to free police time to concentrate on Class A drugs such as heroin.
This article was originally published on page 2 of The Cape Times on July 04, 2003
I agree...I was just doing my Joe Friday impression.
Should have used sarcasm tags I guess.
But, but, I thought marijuana was not a harmful drug! (sarcasm off)
But that won't stop the pro-druggies from defending their habits.
It's hard to change something that has been rotted away.
Yup. For better or worse.
Going back to the original point of the thread, I'm actually anti-WOD (relatively speaking), and think the feds have better things to waste their money on (like the propaganda mills called public schools). I'm opposed, on a moral level, to drug use, but I'm opposed to the level of my morality giving rise to legal prohibitions against adults ingesting substances that make them more vacuous, stupid, immature, violent and/or lazy than they already are.
I've no love for Big Brother, and contempt for the Joe Potheads (and Joe Sixpacks) of America.
I actually enjoy making fun of the drug addled and impaired of our culture while defending their right to addle and impair themselves.
'Til death do us part....
I wouldn't say that. It is the same old names that show up on every pot thread. The # of pro-drug threads has gone way down, there used to be 4 or 5 every day and now there is maybe one every day posted by one of the same old names.
There's still more of us than there are of you.
Muhahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!
Muhahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!
Really. Huh the same old names show up on the drug threads and that somehow constitutes a vast majority?
It says to me that the same people who make pot and drug validation their political being on FR are very vocal about their main issue, illicit drug validation.
And you believe these people would be productive members of society if not for their use of marijuana? You may have the correlation and causation reversed; people who are naturally lazy and unmotivated are probably more likely to use drugs.
But on Thursday, the 27-year-old certified nurse's aide admitted that she had used marijuana since age 18 and later began smoking it morning, noon and night.
She said she often went to work stoned at nursing homes and at a correctional facility. She passed her drug tests by using another person's urine, cleaning out her system and, one time during a random test, putting a drop of bleach into her urine sample.
In the hours before she struck Biggs, Mallard testified, she took half a tab of Ecstasy "to try something new."
Oh that's right, you and Yeti don't think there is such a thing as the drug culture and it was the carrots she ate that day which made her try the ecstasy, nevermind.
OK, I'm going to list the anti-POT FReepers who consistently show up, as that is what you originally referred to:
You
Cultural Jihad
A CA Guy
robertpaulsen
Kevin Curry
Roscoe
Feel free to add to that list if you can think of any. Now, compare that with the number of FReepers who consistently post that pot prohibition is a joke, and see if you notice something.
Yeah those 20 or so regular posters who show up on the drug threads every day are very vocal about the validation of illicit drugs and make it their main issue, so?
There are over 100,000 registered posters on FR, even if your ping list had 1,000 names, that would still constitute a mere 1% of FR.
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